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Kouris on the brink of overflow

The island's largest dam, Kouris, is expected to overflow for the second time in its history, possibly by next week, according to officials at the Water Development Department.

"More than likely it will overflow after the weekend, we'll see, if it rains. Of course it could overflow sooner but we don't need to rush it," said senior technician at the Water Development Department, Fedros Roussis. According to Roussis, the last time it overflowed was in 2004 and is currently 99 per cent full.

The dam, whose construction was finished in 1988 in the Limassol area, has a storage capacity of 115 million cubic metres.

Referring to measures that are taken to make sure the dam does not suddenly overflow, with much of the water escaping into the sea, Roussis said that the water is also used to enrich underground aquifers.

"We release some of the water so it can flow into the rivers too and this way it's also controlled so it doesn't overflow suddenly," said Roussis.

Roussis explained that the reservoir's stocks are also being bolstered with water that is transferred from Arminou dam.

Around 31.5 million cubic metres had been transferred in total from Arminou to Kouris this winter.

According to Roussis, the fact that the weather has begun to warm up means that the melting snow will provide a steady flow of water into the island's reservoirs. "The snow will help and will continue to help," said Roussis, adding that the river at Kouris may even flow until June.

Following a winter of heavy rainfall, reservoirs islandwide began to one by one overflow over the last two months with a total of 12 having overflowed by the beginning of March. Dam storage has reached 93.3 per cent, compared to 60 per cent for this time last year.

Roussis also said that the public are welcome to go and watch the dam overflow. "People can go and watch...I've been going and I know a lot of people that have been...there's nothing to worry about," he said, referring to the latest pastime of dam watching.